Having played both college basketball and tennis, and coming from a family deeply involved in professional sports (my brother was a professional basketball player, my father was a professional baseball player, and my father-in-law was a professional football player), I Having experienced and seen the toll that destructive professional play can take on an athlete’s body, and has a keen understanding of all aspects of the recovery process.
I wish a massage like pulse wave massage existed during my recovery. I know I’m going to ask for it to be part of my recovery if ever:
- shorten my recovery time
- ease my pain
- And help me be a stronger, healthier athlete at the end of my rehab.
Pulsewave massage started when I was a Broadway/international touring performer as a way to think outside the box to treat injuries of other professional dancers.Professional dancers are every inch athletes and their injuries include all the strains and tears that are so prevalent on the playing field.
In the beginning, my technique focused on working with the nervous system to allow greater ROM and deeper pain relief and relaxation. I do this by utilizing the flotation and rocking of the limbs, which releases tension in all the muscles that activate the joint, allowing more space in the joint and greater ROM and flexibility. For example, if a client feels their legs float away from their body, all attachments across the hip area must be released to create this sensation.
The “How to Coordinate Deep Massage into an Athlete’s Schedule” Conundrum
When a dance injury kept me temporarily off stage – I decided to take a break from performing to attend massage school and learn more about the art. As part of this training, we were asked to attend a three-day workshop on how to incorporate various traditional deep massages into a professional athlete’s training and performance program.
Why do we need to be taught this? The reason is that many traditional deep techniques destroy tissue — just as strength exercises tear muscles to build muscle. This damage often takes days or more for the tissue to recover. Therefore, we must learn how to incorporate recovery time into massage to ensure that an athlete’s performance is not compromised. As an athlete who has massaged hundreds of professionals without causing pain or damaging tissue, it doesn’t make sense.
This workshop was one of my main motivations after leaving school to find better ways to do deep tissue work. My experiments with deep massage after graduation focused on incorporating what I knew about massage techniques before school into the positive aspects of the techniques I learned in school, excluding the numerous contraindications and negative side effects found in traditional deep massage, such as bruising injury, damage to the circulatory system and pain.
I developed pulse wave technology. The basic premise of this massage is to use pulsating pressure instead of holding pressure or deep fiber friction, and approach depth with the goal of bringing pleasure to the tissues rather than pain. In creating this new method of deep tissue massage, I have achieved great depths with no pain/contraindications/injury to clients or myself.
But it wasn’t until I studied how massage affects Delta Wave brainwave activity (during which nearly every aspect of our healing process occurs fully or is exponentially amplified) that I fully realized how incredible Pulse Wave is. The therapeutic potential of massage for injury recovery, as well as the destructive aspects of traditional techniques.
To understand the massive implications of what this means for professional athletes and injury recoverers, we have to look at the profound healing that took place during the Delta.
delta miracle
Our brain activity is divided into several different phases according to the wave frequency of each phase. The slowest and longest frequency is called Delta.
Most of the time, people experience a delta stage, or brain activity, during sleep—only an average of 15 percent of sleep is spent in this delta state (often referred to as “deep sleep”).
Studies clearly show that almost all of human growth hormone is produced in the delta state of brain activity; most of the protein, interleukin-1, is a key component of our immune system defenses; tumor necrosis factor (a potent Cancer cell killer) production increased tenfold; memory consolidation and nervous system regeneration mainly occurred.
reach the delta
Outside of sleep, it is possible to slow down one’s brain activity to delta levels. The main reason we are unable to achieve this state of relaxation in the waking world (and during sleep) is that our defense mechanisms do not allow us to disengage from awareness of our surroundings.Turn off our defenses and let’s ignore our surroundings Must happen for delta to happen.
What this means for injury recovery
Traditional deep massages that use pain as a tool never reach the delta because they constantly trigger one’s defense reflexes. However, pulse wave massage allows for deep work, actually deeper than traditional techniques, without triggering defensive reflexes. This is great for athletes and those recovering from injuries as it allows for relaxation of the therapeutic aspect of the triangle wave during deep work. What’s more – it helps to get into delta sleep faster and more deeply that night.
Imagine the therapeutic impact that increased delta activity would have on growth hormone production (the cornerstone of all cellular repair), energy restoration, immune system strengthening, memory building and more! Numerous studies have shown that just 30 minutes more of the healing ingredients produced in delta 3 times a week can shorten a three-month recovery period by almost two weeks!
Other Benefits of Pulse Wave Massage
greater depth
The pulse wave penetrates deeper than the held pressure as it continues into the tissue well past the last point the therapist touched – often throughout the entire body. Likewise, the force waves initiated by the healer’s hands do not stop at the point of contactSo even a slight pulse sends pressure waves deeper than a finger can penetrate the tissue — deeper than painful holding pressure can achieve.
Picture a bathtub full of water. If you push your hand up and down in a water system, pulse waves travel in all directions and bounce off harder surfaces, flooding all areas with waves of gentle pressure. Once you remove your hand, the wave continues to bounce back and forth for a long time. I can attest that many of my clients say they can still feel “my hands are massaging them” hours after receiving a massage and their tissues are warmed and softened.
But it’s not just muscle tissue that gains positive health benefits from the pulse waves traveling back and forth through the tissue. The organs are being gently massaged by Li Bo. Spinal fluid — which is difficult to move around to nourish and restore the nervous system — is feeling the ripples of the pulse waves, causing fluid in the spine and skull to move around. Virtually all body systems benefit from gentle pressure waves passing through them.
reduce Stress levels and enhanced pain management
Elevated stress levels associated with pain and fear release harmful substances into our system that are unhealthy in many ways—from raising heart rate to raising blood pressure, to suppressing the immune system, to making nights sleepier. Difficulty sleeping – thus reducing delta activity further suppresses the immune system, impairs the emotional system, and dramatically reduces production of nearly all therapeutic ingredients the body needs to regenerate and grow.
The pulse wave doesn’t trigger this stress response because it doesn’t create a fear pattern that triggers the body’s defense response of releasing these ultimately harmful substances.Conversely, trust-induced pulses reduce cortisol levels, reduce blood pressure, help associated with sleep patterns and allows the possibility to achieve Delta Wave thresholds and all the therapeutic benefits associated with this relaxed state.
Also, the pleasurable feeling created by the pulse/wave is intensified by the signal we touch that transmits our intention to bring happiness to the area Causes the release of pain-relieving endorphins.
Collateral tissue relaxation
When using deep techniques with low to moderate pain thresholds, the tension that builds up in the surrounding tissue increases with each episode of pain.
By utilizing pulse wave technology, not only is collateral tension removed, but a beneficial collateral massage effect is also produced on the surrounding tissue as the force wave propagates far beyond the point of pressure pulsation. What’s more – by bringing pleasure to one area instead of pain, adjacent areas of the body soften in anticipation of experiencing pleasure as well.
increased blood flow
Traditional deep techniques can create dangerous pressure buildup in the reflux system and act like a tourniquet to deprive pressure points and other tissues of blood supply, but pulse waves Increases the blood supply to the working area and provides a beneficial “help” to the return system – especially the lymphatic system, which relies heavily on the pump action in the muscles.
And don’t forget about the added ROM!
I mentioned earlier in the article that this massage was developed in part by studying professional dancers and helping them maintain and often increase their range of motion while they recover. This aspect of pulse wave massage should not be underestimated. Not only can an athlete’s range of motion be compromised by injury, but strength training often limits ROM. Crucially, the massage they receive helps maintain and even improve their flexibility and range of motion.
part of every recovery therapy
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I have experienced the punishment athletes’ bodies experience during training and competition. Also, having gone through traditional deep massage therapy and enduring the pain and fear as part of those treatments, I believe the anxiety is something I have to live with and go through to get back into the game – not realizing that I might be holding me back Take recovery and performance from traditional deep work.
I wish I knew then what I know now—and what I hope this article reveals: There is a better way.
If there’s a drug that reduces pain, increases production of cell-regenerative substances, boosts the immune system, and promotes mental sharpness — why isn’t it prescribed in the first place?
about the author
Brad Drummer, LMT, BCTMB
As one of the highest-rated and rated massage therapists in the country, and managing partner of Nusta Spa, one of the top day spas in the world, Brad has massage queens and ambassadors, as well as Hall of Famers and athletes (Brad is an NFL Players Association Health and Wellness Consultant). He created a new form of massage that revolutionized the approach to deep tissue, recognized by the founder of the Aspen Back Institute as “…the future of therapeutic massage…”. Brad has traveled the world in his new massage therapy as a massage consultant and CE certified provider instructor, working with spas and physical therapy offices – including Auberge Group, Exhale Spas, and Restore Motion Therapy, among others. As part of this consultation, he helped develop and launch several spas, and he was recently approached by a Washington, D.C., hospital to study the use of his triangle wave massage technique for injury recovery and pain management. Brad is licensed to practice massage in the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, New York, and Virginia, has served as a program director for a massage academy, is certified in First Aid and CPR, and is a NCBTMB certified continuing education provider.
